


Heart

by fawn_writes



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Androids, Body Worship, Earth C (Homestuck), Hal has a body, M/M, Robots, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27152456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fawn_writes/pseuds/fawn_writes
Summary: Dirk constructs a body for Hal and Jake comes to witness it.
Relationships: Auto-Responder | Lil Hal/Jake English
Kudos: 6





	Heart

Obviously, Jake is no more than a simple watcher today, the assistant – max. And it feels right, calming even, not to interfere this time and keep his own advice off. He won’t trust himself to make even a goddamn lunch, and this work… is too important to be done by anyone else except its rightful Creator. To make the right kind of vessel for the form of life that has been so dear to him lately.  
  
He sees it for the first time, faceless, limbless and not even half-ready, but still finds it beautiful. Dirk’s temporarily away, finding some substitute for a healthy lunch and making sure he has all the programs available to run tests tonight, so Jake may have some time for himself alone with the robot. Some precious moments to do stupid things. Nothing, of course, that could sabotage the work, he doesn’t allow himself to have the rights to do such hullabaloo, just… a little something. Like laying a finger on a smooth dark surface in a gentle gesture and wonder, if he’ll always be like that or have a much softer skin-like alloy outer layer. Or weighing his arm-to-be in his hands with fingers slowly caressing the gaps where soon there will be joints and wiry innards.   
  
That’s pretty interesting.   
  
Jake clearly remembers such robotic hands, fists made from metal that used to bring him so much pain; the form unchanged being the style of a master. Now, what will these do? Will they be as kind and loving as he wants them to? Or will they be as merciless as his predecessor’s? Will they even be familiar to the touch as everything is assembled together and they come to life? Not too familiar, definitely, but still the thrill of unknown flows through him in a series of electric impulses forcing him to shudder a bit.   
  
This is the body he likes. The body he might as well _want_ some day. The perfect shell for his possible beau, and… it just keeps playing with his inborn curiosity, silently allowing him to come much closer and be a little more passionate. A little more of his careful observations.  
  


Jake presses his ear to the stiff metallic chest, turns his face closer, closes his eyes and listens. Holds his breath to hear something very different. There’s no heartbeat, no pulsation, no chest moving that would indicate breathing and no anything that would imitate the signs of life in this man-made creature. Just a steady hum of tiny servos inside doing their own job of keeping this body and the artificial mind inside of it in a perfect working state. Jake slowly traces his fingers along the welding line on the side and bites his lip to suppress the sudden urge to push apart the metaphorical ribs and see what makes This One tick.   
  
Does he even have a heart at this point? If so… how many of them? A heart for every processor? Just one – the CPU? No, of course not, that would be pretty dumb. And surely not a literal heart-formed core made of uranium, no more of that. He saw the last of its kind being shattered into pieces by his former combat compatriot for his own needs, which then caused its self-destruction.  
  
  
Something tightens in his own chest, almost painfully, but not enough to gasp or grasp. And with that comes the thought, as sharp as a shard of glass. No. This can’t happen again, so none of that uranium nonsense. This one must be unshatterable. Unbreakable. He won’t lose this one, even though his creator might have to leave him possibly heartless for that purpose. Luckily, his humanity obviously is contained elsewhere, so he won’t lose anything essential. And even then, if he’ll feel the lack of something during his own ways of experiencing life… Everything will be normal. They’ll manage to keep it normal. After all, Jake has enough of his own heart to share.

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of messed up and hard to read. I'm sorry. It's just raw feelings, no more no less.


End file.
